Whenever I talk about my book, everyone's first question is, What is it about? Their second question is often, How did you do it? Usually, I laugh and say it was hard. It was, but as I started to write my second book, I realized that I had learned a few things along the way that made the task a little less daunting.
Writing is hard. It’s something that only writers know. When you are not a writer writing is as simple as stringing words together in the right order to create a sentence and then doing that repeatedly. A writer knows that the type of words you use matter and that the right choice of words and pacing of those words turns the words into a story that will play out in the reader's mind. So what do writers do if the words don’t come?
When you are born with a disability, there is no before and after. You are born different, but you don't feel different. You accept who you are because it is who you have always been. Your adaptations don't feel like adaptations because they are simply how you've always done them. People stare, and it doesn't even end up on your radar.
One month ago today I clicked a button that said publish and my childhood dream of becoming an author became a reality. Honestly it was pretty anticlimactic. I decided to self-publish because I didn't think it was right that a stranger dressed in khakis, working in some office got to decide whether my book could make their boss enough money to be worth printing. But, as it turns out, even self –publishing has its rules, and i had to wait two days while the powers that be at decided whether my book was good enough to grace the pages of their website. Thankfully I passed their scrutiny but it was the longest 2 days of my life.
